Saturday, 15 May 2010

Organic Weekend - Une Natural Beauty from Bourjois

I do love me a bit of Bourjois, long one of my favourite High Street brands, I was delighted to find out recently that they were launching a new range of affordable organic cosmetics! Already available in a few Boots stores around the country (London readers, you can find your nearest stand in the Oxford Street branch), it's making it's official debut on the Boots website this week. Every single product in this line is between 98 to 100%, there are no synthetic dyes or fragrances, and the range is sillicone, paraben, pthalate and petrochemical free, and the ingredients used are sourced as organically as possible. Pretty impressive for a mass brand, and the prices start at a not too pocket busting £4.99 for pencils, through £8.99 for shadows, up to £11.99 for the foundations.

I managed to get my hands on a few bits and pieces, so I could give you my impressions:

First of all the packaging, it's clean, it's functional, and it's also pretty stylish, I love the square pencils, and the mirrored tops to the blush and eye packaging, but it's bulky. They're not really items that are suitable for carrying around with you - but that mirror (you peel the labels off) is a totally nifty idea, and I love it.

A closer look at the items and their formulations:

As you can see, the mirrored sections slide up on the colour cosmetics to reveal the contents. A lot of the range is based around creams, from left to right we have: Breezy Cheeks blusher, a cream formulation, which goes on smoothly with fingers or a synthetic brush, and leaves a pretty, stained looking glow.

A matte finish without shimmer, these are lovely, almost foolproof shades which are buildable to the intensity you desire. Longevity isn't bad, but you will probably need to reapply towards late afternoon time to keep looking flushed and lovely!

There are three formulations of eyeshadow, Sfumato (powder), Glimmer (cream), and Nude Eyes (cream to powder), as seen below in the same order as above:

All of these shadows tend to swatch on the sheer side. They're great for layering (I like to use the nude eyes cream on the bottom as a base, then use the powder sfumato for definition around the crease and as a liner, then dot a little of the glimmer over the whole thing for a little sparkle), and as I found out the other day, they last pretty well under stressful situations such as crying, and eye-rubbing. The range of shades tends towards the neutral/sludgy spectrum (which, for me, is a plus!) and they're good for creating natural, polished looks. I'll definitely be picking more of these up. Oh, but throw away the dinky brushes, they're worse than useless, if you ask me. These are ideal for applying with fingers for a quick application, they sheer, so they're pretty difficult to go wrong with.

Pencils: mixed feelings about the pencils, to be honest. Above is shown one eyeliner (the Sfumato, top) and a "Skin Glow" pencil. The Sfumato eyeliner I find to be slightly on the hard and crumbly side, gorgeous shades, but I'm not sure they're great for the delicate eye area, as they appear to drag slightly on my skin. The Skin Glow pencil, I love, even while I freely admit that I'm not - entirely - sure what it's supposed to be. It's a creamy flesh-toned pencil, which I've used both as an eyeliner (on the water line) and as a concealer for small areas, plus I've used it to highlight my cupids bow, and add a little light to the inner corners of my eyes. It worked well on all of those tasks - surprisingly versatile! - but ... I'm not sure what it's "official" function is meant to be, so if you know, do tell! Here's how they swatch:

The lipsticks are probably the standouts of the range though. A selection of lip-toned (not nudes, please note the difference!) shades, they're creamy and moisturising, and they add a polished finished look to your makeup whilst flattering your skin tones:

Again, they swatch on the sheer side, but, as with the shadows, this is deliberate in order to let your natural colouring through:

I love these, and I think I'll definitely be picking up a couple more when I get a chance, they're delightful!

I was also sent a foundation, but owing to circumstances beyond my control, I've not had a chance to wear it properly yet so I can't give it a proper review! Long story ...

In essence, this is a good solid collection from Bourjois, some hits, some misses, the colour-range won't appeal to everyone, admittedly, but the textures are generally excellent, they're wonderfully easy to apply, and it's and range ideal for someone who wants to avoid particular ingredients whilst not spending a fortune. Personally, I think it's a great range for neutral, polished looks, and, I'm a fan, what do you think?

Oh wow. Umm. I am not sure how to react to that. It's pretty different from what bourjois usually does. where are the french names gone? i think i need to see it for myself to make a final opinion. so far, i am not sold xxthank you for the post

I have two sfumato eye shadows, and I'm not pleased. (I have the purple one you showed and a grey one)There's no excuse at all, I paid about 13 euros for each and they're crumbly and irritating my eyes.After only one hour my eyes start to burn and turn red just like when I have a sudden hay fever attack coming up.This has never happened to me before with any eye shadow.

Plus the purple colour really doesn't suit my brown eyes, making me look tired even when applied only on the top lid and not under my lower lashes.

Um, the eyeshadows I showed are all taupes, there's no purple ones on the post - sorry, I don't have the shade numbers to hand!

Without making excuses for Une, it's a sad fact that people can become allergic to any products at any time, for any reason without warning, even natural ranges.

I myself can't use a lot of products from a lot of well-respected ranges because they make my skin flare up (including items from Clinique, Lancome and Chanel amongst others), but most other people use them without problems - but that's more about an individuals skin than a makeup range itself.

Likewise, you can't really blame a range if you picked the wrong shade to wear!

I'm sorry you've had bad experiences though, it's always very disappointing when something you like the look of doesn't work out for you.

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Welcome

I am Louise Woollam. A makeup obsessed accountant by day. Multi-Jasmine Award nominated fragrance writer (now suffering from a little-known olfactory disorder) running The Parosmia Diaries by night. I am also allegedly the "brains" behind Get Lippie at weekends. It keeps me out of trouble. Sometimes

Want to get in touch about anything you see here? Then just drop an email to me at louise@getlippie.com I'd love to hear from you.